And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah.
And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
It may be Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of Rab-Shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
So Rab-Shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah saying: Let not thy God, upon whom thou reliest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed delivered them: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar?
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.
And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
O Jehovah, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, O Jehovah, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore have they destroyed them.
And now, Jehovah our God, I beseech thee, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, Jehovah, art God, thou only.
And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Jehovah God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
This is the word that Jehovah hath spoken concerning him:
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?{HR}And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,{HR}And lifted up thine eyes on high?{HR}Even again the Holy One of Israel. {HR}
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said,{HR}With the multitude of my chariots have I come up{HR}To the height of the mountain, to the recesses of Lebanon,{HR}And I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses;{HR}And I will enter into its furthest lodging-place,{HR}Into the forest of its fruitful field.{HR}
I have digged, and have drunk strange waters,{HR}And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor.
Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it?{HR}And that from ancient days I formed it?{HR}Now have I brought it to pass,{HR}That thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.{HR}
And their inhabitants were powerless,{HR}They were dismayed and put to shame;{HR}They were as the growing grass, and as the green herb,{HR}As the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up.{HR}
But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in,{HR}And thy raging against me.{HR}
Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears,{HR}I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips,{HR}And I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest.
And this shall be the sign unto thee:{HR}They shall eat this year such as groweth of itself,{HR}And in the second year that which springeth of the same;{HR}But in the third year sow ye and reap,{HR}And plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.{HR}
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah{HR}Shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;{HR}
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant,{HR}And out of mount Zion they that escape:{HR}The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria:{HR}He shall not come into this city,{HR}Nor shoot an arrow there,{HR}Nor come before it with shield,{HR}Nor cast a bank against it.{HR}
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,{HR}And shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah.
For I will defend this city, to save it,{HR}For mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
It came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and abode at Nineveh.
And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.